Courtesy the Kingsport Times-News, Wednesday June 14, 2023 written by Joe Carr, Sullivan County Commission, District 9:
A few weeks ago, the Sullivan County Commission added Juneteenth as a paid holiday for county employees. I objected and voted no.
Sadly, I and other commissioners who voted the same way have received threats of political violence, which is always wrong, and not just on Jan. 6 of 2021.
First, to be perfectly clear, no one supports slavery or opposes celebrating emancipation.
Slavery has been universally condemned as a great stain on our past, a sin that has been sadly common across the ages and around the world and is not unique to our continent.
While Juneteenth is indeed a celebration of freedom, for activists on the extreme far left, it is intended as a Trojan Horse for the 1619 Project, a factually discredited revisionist curriculum that woke ideologues want taught in our schools to brainwash future generations with the false claim that the American Revolution was only fought to preserve slavery.
The 1619 Project is an element of a Marxist religion called “wokeness” often associated with Critical Race Theory, a dogma that seeks to train Americans to see all “black and brown” people as helpless victims oppressed by “systemic racism,” and all Caucasians as racist oppressors due to the original sin of “white privilege,” a scarlet letter which no amount of repentance can ever atone for or wash away.
That worldview is endlessly divisive. In fact, classifying people by skin color was the definition of racism just a decade ago — the exact opposite of what Martin Luther King taught us, that no person should be “judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.”
Unlike the radical left that has now rejected it, most Sullivan County citizens still believe in Martin Luther King’s dream and reject the slander that America is a racist nation.
Juneteenth itself has nothing to do with Sullivan County or Tennessee. It celebrates the anniversary of an 1865 order proclaiming freedom for slaves in Texas. Would it not make more sense to honor the day slaves were freed in Tennessee instead?
More broadly, what is the limiting principle on commemorative holidays? How many more days off must our taxpayers work and pay to support? And will we allow far-left ideology to influence future holidays on our county’s calendar?
Sullivan County employees already receive 10 other paid holidays a year, not counting election days, and by the time you add all of those up, you’re looking at a cost of over $1 million annually. That cost was not considered, and several county commissioners who are also county employees did not recuse themselves from the vote.
Many forget that conservatives originally opposed Labor Day because it came from the progressive labor movement, which had its roots in globalist socialism.
Columbus Day, which in many parts of the country has been canceled for the sake of “political correctness” and replaced with “Indigenous People’s Day,” was established in 1892 after the largest mass lynching in American history in New Orleans when a mob murdered 11 Italian immigrants.
How long until we are asked to close down county operations for the Transgender Day of Visibility or Karl Marx Day, or, dare I say, Pride Day?
And why should only one side of the aisle get to emotionally blackmail the public calendar?
Why not give county employees another day off on June 24 and call it “Human Life Day” to mark the anniversary of Dobbs vs. Jackson, the decision that overturned Roe vs. Wade’s unconstitutional verdict that blessed the slaughter of over 70 million innocent unborn babies on the bloody altar of sexual gratification.
So, Juneteenth?
Fine by me.
But two sides can tango, and I’m ready for the conservative majority to join the dance.
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EDITORIAL REBUTTAL FROM CALVIN
SNEED, YOUR WEBSITE EDITOR:
As you can read above, Sullivan County Commissioner Joe Carr is again, doubling down on his objection to celebrating the end of slavery in this country, although he does say "no one supports slavery, or opposes celebrating emancipation." Well thank you Commissioner Carr... that is mighty white of you.
In the dribblish, rambling "but what about" column he wrote above, he says Juneteenth has nothing to do with Tennessee. In your website editor's opinion, that's like saying we should not celebrate Christmas in Tennessee because the birth of Jesus happened in Israel, not here. Following Carr's logic, Tennessee and Kingsport should not observe Thanksgiving because the first Thanksgiving and its celebration happened in Massachusetts, not in Tennessee. Any observance of Easter is out the window (Easter is not even a federal or state holiday)... but Easter has nothing to do with Tennessee anyway. Carr's ridiculous reasoning makes no sense.
He also laments about the "threats" that he and other commissioners who voted his way about Juneteenth have received. What did the commissioner expect, when he makes a ridiculous suggestion in public about recognizing a holiday that celebrates the end of slavery?
So far, Carr has offered no opinion of the national and Tennessee official observance of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Day, except to not include the "Reverend" and "Doctor" in reference to King's name. One can only assume that he has a problem with Dr. Martin Luther King Day as well... luckily, no one has questioned him about it. Yet.
A reminder to everyone.. please come to the Juneteenth celebration in Kingsport this coming Saturday. Please stand up to perceived racism from a public figure who promised at his inauguration to represent all of the people in his district, whom he claims "are against Juneteenth." So far, only one email to the County Commission has supported him.. every other communication has condemned his bigotry.
Get ready to dance, Commissioner... instead of the tango, let's twist.
--------Calvin Sneed, your website editor
